Jamie Walker takes first steps towards Hearts return

BARRY ANDERSON

JAMIE WALKER will start running at Riccarton on Monday less than a week after surgery on his knee.

The Hearts winger is making rapid progress after an operation in Bradford and has already begun conditioning work at the club’s training ground.

Provided he suffers no reaction, he should be fit before the end of the month, providing management with a huge boost for the second half of the season. Walker hasn’t played for two months due to persistent knee pain but Hearts are hopeful he is now cured. A specialist removed a piece of “floating” bone from Walker’s knee earlier this week and the operation was declared a huge success. Head coach Robbie Neilson explained Walker is now ready to go.

“He’s been back in already to start his conditioning work and on Monday he’ll start running,” said Neilson. “Before he went down for his operation, we were looking at six to eight weeks out. The surgeon went into his knee and found that the issue wasn’t as bad as we expected. It was just a small problem and it’s been sorted, so he’ll be out for two to three weeks.

“The surgeon went in, cut him open, took a wee piece of bone out which was floating about and stitched him back up. He’s good to go. It’s good to get to the bottom of it because it’s been a difficult period.

“We thought we had it sorted but he played in a bounce game for us and it flared up again. That’s when we decided he needed surgery on it. We sent him to the best guy in England to get it sorted and we’re pleased with the outcome.”